Tripped Up

Exodus 33:14  The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, 

and I will give you rest.”

Why does it seem that as soon as life is going smooth, you hit a bump in the road?!  Sometimes it is just a pebble in the path and you fall dead smack on your face, enough to trip you up, leaving you in tears and afraid.  Other times the bump completely detours the entire direction you thought you were going.

Last summer I was on a beautiful early morning run while vacationing with my family and friends at a camp in New Hampshire.  The air was that perfect blend of invigorating chill that awakens your senses and motivates your body to move just a touch faster to warm itself.  Loving greeting the new day with the birds, watching the steam rise up off of the lake, as the sun slowly coerced all to awaken, I could not have been more at peace.  The sun was rising up above the lake and I could literally SMELL God's beauty in the day ahead.  

My husband and I were running together, a rarity in and of itself, and were deep in conversation.  My feet were moving as if on autopilot and we were almost to the main lodge where we could smell our breakfast cooking.  I was feeling good!   And then, out of nowhere I tripped and fell right onto my bad knee.  

The pain that seared through my hands as they smacked the ground brought tears to my eyes and I just lay there, screaming, in shock that my blissful morning run was so abruptly and painfully interrupted.  All I could think about was how my day was ruined, my knee was going to swell, I was going to be unable to enjoy the rest of my vacation, and on and on the worries came.  

As my mind ran away with every bit of fear and worry it could find to cling to, my body started to absorb the rude smack of the pavement and the sting in my hands started to become bearable enough to move. I inched myself off of the road, testing out my knee to see just how bad it really was.  Ever so slowly I got onto my feet, gained my composure and pushed through the pain, attempting to walk. But I knew that despite how I was feeling I had to get up.  I had to push through and keep moving on.  I was driven to turn this one over to the Lord, for sitting on a remote dirt road, crying and wishing the pain would just disappear was just simply not working.

So with my husband's help I hobbled my way back to the lodge, praying the entire way for God to take over.  What was done was done and all I could do was ice and rest it.  God had this, as He does everything else in my life.  Every fall, every bump, every trip; He has it.

Falling on a run that is going seamless is analogous for how we so often get tripped up on the road of life.  The falls, the bruises, the pain, the anxiety; they all seem to come literally out of nowhere.  There are days when, for the life of me, I cannot even figure out just WHY I am tripped up!

Yet every time I do get tripped up, whether it be in big ways or small, I am driven to my knees.  I am helpless, defenseless and broken.  I am at the mercy of life and all I can do is cry out to God, the one who has it all in His hands.  It is into His arms I run and there that I am whole, healed, unbroken. 

Today I had lunch with some ladies after my weekly Bible Study Fellowship class.  One of the women is living with an incurable form of cancer and has certainly had her share of "trip ups" in the past few years alone.  Yet she said to me that she is now able to see it as a blessing.  If she had not been so broken, so helpless, she would not have even slowed down enough to form the friendships she had, friendships that led her to being open to God's presence in His word, even in doing something like a weekly Bible study with BSF!  She would never have known just who held her life.  I was in awe.  

What if we were to take a whole other perspective on these “trip ups” in life?  What if we were to see them not as falls that set us back, but falls that propel us into the arms of the One who is with us, no matter what? 

When I fall and am driven into His arms, His grace and mercy flood me with the assurance that I am not alone.  His love washes over me and I am reminded that through the pain, bumps, and bruises of this life, He is there.  He is my salve, my ice pack for the pain, my rock.  

Would I know that if I never got tripped up?  Would I even turn to Him?  Something tells me not.  I am a stubborn, pig headed soul who is drawn to control.  But those trip-ups, they are my God’s gift to me. His constant reminders that He is the one to give me rest; He is my peace.